MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — "Is this generation really this simplistic? This is sad,"
said Westboro Baptist Church member Fred Phelps, Jr. on Monday. "This is embarrassing."

Four members of the church came to speak to three of Central Michigan University Associate Journalism Professor Tim Boudreau's classes. Boudreau invites controversial speakers to his classes each semester to demonstrate the protection of the First Amendment.

The
members of the Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church gained
international attention for protesting at funerals for
Americans troops serving in Iraq as a protest of the U.S. accepting
homosexual lifestyles. They carry signs that read, "God hates fags,"
"Thank God for dead soldiers," and "Thank God for 9-11."

Boudreau does not endorse their beliefs or agree with them, he said, but invited the members for their second visit to encourage his students to think about the freedom of expression. The members paid their own way to Michigan.

Students engaged members Shirley Phelps-Roper, Fred Phelps, Jr., Jennifer Phelps-Roper and Taylor Drain in a heated conversation about the church's beliefs. The members said the college-age generation supports "filth," such as same-sex marriage.

"We don't worry about the outcome. We just preach," Shirley Phelps-Roper said. "We're not trying to win souls for Jesus."

There are 60 to 80 members in the church, Fred Phelps, Jr. said. About 75 percent are related by blood
or marriage.

The members have been preaching and protesting for 21 years, spending millions of dollars of their own money on 48,000 pickets across all 50 states, he said.

The Westboro Baptist Church is not affiliated with any other church.

"We're not angry, we're zealous," said Shirley Phelps-Roper, and attorney and the daughter of church founder Fred Phelps.

In 2011, members of the church, including Phelps-Roper, argued their right to free speech in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 8 to 1 the group is protected under the First Amendment.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the decision, "As a nation, we have
chosen to protect even hurtful speech to ensure we do not stile public
debate."

The United Kingdom banned the church members, and the Klu Klux Klan condemned them.

"Even the Klan are
upset with these folks," Boudeau said.

The church members believe people do
not have their own will, but it is all God's. Phelps-Roper, the most animated of the group, said God sent the planes crashing into the buildings on September 11, 2001 and it is his will that kills soldiers in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The U.S.'s acceptance of homosexuals, she said, has caused the trauma and drama the country has today.

"What is happening in this country today has never been seen
in this country," she said. "It didn't look anything like this."

"Shirley, there were plenty of problems when we were little,"
Boudreau replied, to clapping and cheering from the audience.